12 – 18 Months

When professionals are assessing a child, they look at the child’s developmental milestones. These milestones refer to the times that a child achieved important skills e.g. first smile, crawling, ability to sit, walking, first words, etc.

There is a time span that most children would achieve these skills in. By building up a picture of a child’s progress in all the areas of development, a professional can form a judgment on whether or not a child’s developmental pattern is unusual.

Physical:-

In this period will go from bouncing to music to dancing , trotting and prancing

Will begin to walk backwards

Tries to kick a ball

Will scribble with thick crayons

Can hold spoon and cup

Favours one hand

Will walk up stairs

Mental:-

Understands cause and effect

Starts to pretend

Beginning to remember

Separation anxiety eases as will remember that parent returns

Can match shapes

Can point to familiar objects in simple pictures

Hearing and language:-

Likes to sing

Says several words

Can say “no” and shake head

Listens to sound-making toys and will repeat actions to make the sounds again